It's not just about digital anymore. It's about digital connections to the physical world. Here are five ways you can move your brand into the new marketing reality.

Over the years, marketers have spent a lot of time in pursuit of the "big idea." But do they ever stop to consider what that really means? 

According to Stefan Olander, global director of brand connections at Nike, the quintessential big idea isn't what it used to be. "We used to start with an ad, and then we'd build layers of interactivity," he said. "Now it starts with the need to solve a problem, and that forces us to think differently. The entertainment layer will never go away, but now it's applied in a different way."

Indeed, digital technologies have transformed all media. Today, advertising is no longer about crafting a concept and pushing it out to the masses. It's about sparking a conversation -- or giving consumers the ability to talk amongst themselves. On Wednesday during ad:tech New York, Olander joined a panel of other industry experts to discuss how successful brands are reenvisioning how they connect with consumers in a digital world. In doing so, they highlighted the following five roles that successful brands are playing in consumers' lives.

1. Brands as entertainers
"We all thought, in the old days, that brands bought media," said moderator Paul Woolmington, founding partner of Naked Communications. "But brands can actually become the entertainers." 

Not only that, but brands can also enable consumers to entertain themselves. Among myriad examples, Woolmington pointed to Cadbury's Gorilla campaign, in which an extremely expressive gorilla drums to the beat of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight." The wildly successful and entertaining campaign not only scored millions of YouTube views, but it also inspired hundreds of mashups and reinterpretations by viewers.

2. Brands as mavericks
Jessica Greenwood, deputy editor of Contagious Magazine, pointed out that, although McCain's failed presidential bid may have soiled the word "maverick," the idea behind the word is still something that brands can and should aspire to.

"The fact that you can be subversive and be mainstream right now opens up many possibilities," she said. Among her examples, Greenwood pointed to Method hand soap, a brand that sprang up as an environmentally safe alternative to other toxic cleaners. In spite of its defiant roots, the brand has achieved tremendous widespread appeal.

3. Brands as schizophrenics (two-track branding)
Brands today are not limited to a single persona. "You can be lots of different things to lots of different people," Greenwood said. "You can target the masses and the niches to really create hysteria."

As an example, Greenwood pointed to the marketing genius behind "The Dark Knight." In addition to standard mainstream media materials promoting the film, its marketers created a tremendous underground phenomenon through vehicles such as Harvey Dent's campaign website.

4. Brands as benefactors
Branding isn't always just about the brand. Companies today are realizing that their campaigns also need to be useful and relevant to their consumers. Greenwood pointed to the UPS package tracking widget as a prime example of a brand putting its customers' needs first.

But being a true benefactor goes even further. "An increasingly important factor is how you take the virtual world and have it meet the physical world," said Nick Law, R/GA's executive vice president and chief creative officer for North America. As an example of these real-world connections, he pointed to the Nokia viNe, a GPS-based application that enables users to record the sights and sounds of their journeys and upload them for all to see.

As an example of another brand that is creating goodwill with its advertising, Andy Berndt, managing director of Google Creative Lab, pointed to a simple print ad for Tylenol. The ad instructs consumers on how to resize the text in their browser, thus reducing eye strain and, possibly, headaches. Additional tips for relieving common aches and pains without pills can be found on the Tylenol website. Berndt noted that on the surface such an approach may seem counterintuitive. After all, if people don't have headaches, won't sales go down? But it's precisely that kind of problem-solving and goodwill that can build brand loyalty.

5. Brands as innovators
The need for brands to innovate may seem obvious, especially to digital marketers. But it bears repeating. "If you don't innovate, you're going to die," Woolmington said. As examples of brands that have taken this lesson to heart, he mentioned Speedo. Through its Olympic alignment with Michael Phelps, the brand finally managed to do away with a legacy that for years had revolved around the image of an overweight man in a too-small swimsuit, Woolmington noted.

Lori Luechtefeld is editor of iMedia Connection.